Local school officials discuss legislative initiatives

HARRISONBURG - Area school officials gathered Wednesday afternoon in Harrisonburg to discuss education funding, programs and new initiatives.

The Shenandoah Valley Regional Program encompasses Shenandoah, Page, Rockingham and Augusta counties, as well as Staunton and Harrisonburg. Waynesboro City Schools was present for the meeting, but haven’t officially become a part of the program.

“It’s an opportunity to collaborate up and down the Valley,” said Scott Kizner, superintendent of Harrisonburg City Schools.

“We might be the Valley and we might not have the same number of students as Northern Virginia, but we do often face the same challenges,” Kizner added.

Nearly 90 percent of school divisions with 98 percent of statewide enrollment decreased instructional spending from 2005 to 2014, according to a Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission report.

“Our core business is teaching and learning, we’re spending less on instruction,” said Jeremy Raley, superintendent of Shenandoah County Schools. “That’s a concern.”

The region has seen a 17 percent decrease in state funding since 2008 to 2014, Raley said. In order to balance the budget, teacher reduction has been an added pressure since 2008.

“We’ve got to get control of our system, otherwise it will end up eating away at our education funding,” said Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave.

Most of the challenges are coming from the incoming non-native English speakers entering the school system, Landes said. Since English-language learners are coming in with such a large influx, there are limited resources in the school systems to provide for them.

“It does put pressure on our systems, we see that on the local and the state level,” he said. “If you can’t speak English, you have to first learn that in order to do anything in our educational system.”

Special education and preschool initiative

The Valley needs innovative programing in order to keep the children in their schools, with funding through the Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro through the Comprehensive Services Act Fund, said Jelisa Wolfe, executive director of pupil services for Staunton City Schools.

Wolfe said many students who aren’t getting what they need in public schools are moving towards private education. Those with either special education needs, behavior problems or some students that are court ordered to move to a different school, are the ones Wolfe said need to be brought back.

“Our children come back to our community and they have those broken bonds,” Wolfe said. “We talk about the cost of community long-term, we aren’t facilitating that.”

Wolfe said in a perfect world, a public-based school would have wrap-around services, like after-school activities, counseling in the school, family involvement, and well-trained and expert teachers to provide the proper education to all students.

The Code of Virginia and State Special Education says that qualified special education preschool starts at 2 years old, but the federal regulations says it starts at 3 years old.

At one point in a child’s life, the funding lines are blurred. There needs to be more flexibility in the grey areas in order to provide more opportunities for students in need, according to Patricia Devitt, director of pupil services for Augusta County Schools.

Next steps

Communications between educators and legislative officials needs to be both ways